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Monday, January 02, 2006

Not My Day

There are some days when everything seems to go your way. On the other hand, there are some days where nothing goes right. Today was such a day.

It started well enough. Everything was going on as usual. I had some work at Alor Star and went down to my car.

I noticed something on my car wiper – a ticket for parking illegally. It was the first time I received a ticket even though I have parked at the same spot on several occasions. That was not a good sign and I said my prayers before setting off.

At Alor Star, my luck got worse. I found that the office was closed for lunch. Last month I had gone at the same time and they were still open. A sign of worse things to come?

Spent nearly an hour at the canteen downstairs. Ate a bun and drank orange juice and killed time reading my documents again and again.

Finally went up around 2:00PM. I was shocked to learn that the lady I was supposed to meet was on leave. The guy in her place was very friendly but of no help at all. He led me to a small room and asked me to wait for another officer to attend to me. So I waited. 5 minutes, 10 minutes tick, tock. After waiting for nearly half and hour, I have had enough and went out. The guy apologized profusely and went to look for the guy supposed to deal with me.

The guy came, sat down, took my documents and asked me to call back the lady tomorrow.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

At the car park, the parking attendant was eagerly waiting for me. She was saying something so fast I couldn’t understand. Then it finally sunk in. A lady had reversed her car onto mine. I ran to my car. There was a small dent in the rear and my bumper was in a bad shape. Lady drivers! Fortunately, the lights were undamaged.

I was so angry but my Yoga breathing techniques came in handy and I took long deep breaths. It took quite an effort to control myself from screaming.

After talking with the attendent, I learnt that the lady was in a hurry because her kid had been hospitalized and I cooled a bit after hearing that. She left her name and the place she worked at but no telephone number and left a stupid request – to meet her at the same place tomorrow.

So I directly went to her office, got her office number and left my name card with the officer in charge there and also left a message telling her that I couldn’t keep the date tomorrow because I had to go Kuala Lumpur.

I drove back to my office extra carefully,(well below the speed limit) after that – you never know what might happen next.

Finally reached my office safe and sound. However, if you think that is the end of my series of unfortunate events, then you are wrong.

I am going to present a paper at the 3rd Annual World congress of the Academy for Global Business Advancement (AGBA). The 3 day event with the theme “Business Entrepreneurship Development in a Globalized Era” is going to be held at the JW Marriot Hotel in Bukit Bintang.

The problem was that my application was approved only yesterday and I haven’t received the letter in Black and White till today – something that is going to keep me up all night. The secretary assured me that it would be in my pigeonhole by tomorrow morning. Also learnt that I have to pay the conference fees from my own pocket and claim for it afterwards – another hassle.

Drove to my friendly neighborhood travel agent to book tickets for tomorrow but when I got there, they had closed for the day. I had actually anticipated that.

So went back to my office and booked online on Airasia.com. God bless them.

9 comments:

aaaaawwww poor Adam! That's not a very good way to start off the new year. Aw man, I feel so bad for ya! I hope that you won't have any more days like this. May the rest of the new year be uneventful! I hope your conference is a success!